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Army Uniforms

Speaker 1 (00:00)
Stick around because in this video we are talking about uniforms in the United States Army. What’s up? I’m US Army veteran Christopher Kost. And in this video, we’re talking about the three main uniforms that soldiers wear in the United States Army. Now, there are actually other uniforms that soldiers wear in the United States Army that are specific to maybe that soldier’s MLS. And I’ll talk briefly about some of those, but first, I want to talk about the three main ones that all soldiers have. Those three main uniforms is going to be the Army Physical Fitness uniform or the PT uniform, the Army Combat uniform or the ACUs, or the Camoflage uniform, whichever you want to think of it, and the Army Dress uniform or the ASUs or their fancy uniforms that soldiers have. Now, with all three of these uniforms, there are also variations of the uniforms that change them a little bit here and there. I’ll talk about some of them, but I’m not going to get in depth with every single variation of that uniform. A lot of them have to do with if it’s cold outside or hot outside, as well as if the soldier is male or female.

Speaker 1 (01:01)
Let’s start this off with talking about the army PT uniform or the physical fitness uniform. Now, as of October of 2017, the army has phased out the old gray ones that I used to have back when I was in, and now they stick to the black and gold ones. With the black and gold ones, they have two variations, the summer and the winter PTs. First, let’s talk about the summer PTs. Those include black shorts with army written in gold and a black short sleeve shirt with army also written in gold. Now, the shirt would be tucked into the shorts, and then the soldier would also be wearing some running shoes and socks. Now, as for the running shoes, soldiers are not issued running shoes. That is on the soldier to find an appropriate running shoe that is comfortable and will work for them while running. Soldiers are not allowed to get basketball shoes or sneakers or anything like that. They are supposed to be running shoes. Soldiers then wear white socks. But I’ve also read that the army now allows soldiers to wear black socks. But those socks have to either be ankle length or calf length socks.

Speaker 1 (01:50)
They also cannot have any logos or any designs on those socks. Now, as it starts to get a little bit colder, you may see soldiers that now move from the short sleeve shirt to the long sleeve black shirt. Essentially, it looks exactly like the short sleeve one, just now it’s long sleeves. And then as it starts to get even colder, then soldiers will move towards the full on winter PTs. The winter PTs consist of pants that are black with an army logo, a zip up jacket that also has an army logo on it. And then based on other factors, soldiers also wear a black beanie, black knit cap, and some black gloves. Now, when a soldier is wearing the full winter PT’s, they’re supposed to layer it. So underneath those full winter PT’s, they also have the summer PT’s. That way, if they have a situation where the leadership wants to downgrade a little bit because they’ve been doing something really excessive, or it’s starting to get a little bit warmer and they want to downgrade certain parts, then they’re able to downgrade that without basically being naked. So for example, you might have a situation where the soldiers are wearing the full PTs, and it’s warm out, so they decide that, Hey, we’re going to lose the pants, so that way they lose the pants, they have the shorts on underneath, and now they’re wearing shorts, jacket, maybe the knit cap and gloves.

Speaker 1 (02:49)
And then there are other factors that the leadership may determine to downgrade in different areas as well. Now, for situations where a female is pregnant, they are still allowed to wear the army physical fitness uniform until it becomes uncomfortable or too small to wear. Once it becomes too small or too uncomfortable, then that pregnant soldier is authorized to wear some civilian attire. Now, when a female is pregnant, though, she’s probably not doing a lot of heavy duty PT. She’s probably doing some mild stretching and something really mild, and then maybe at a certain point, not even doing PT at all. Next, let’s move up to the army combat uniform or ACUs. Now, as of recording this video, there’s still two authorized types of uniforms that are still being used by the army. One of those being the universal camouflage pattern or the UCP, also known to some soldiers as the Digital Camoflage Uniforme, and the other pattern being known as the Operational Camoflage Pattern or the OCP. Now, the Universal Camoflage Pattern or the Digital Camoflage Pattern is still being worn by soldiers, and that has a wear out date of September of 2019. By the end of September in 2019, soldiers then have to switch over to the other pattern, that being the operational camouflage pattern.

Speaker 1 (03:50)
Both those uniforms have a very similar type of layout. It’s just really the camouflage pattern is mainly different and a few other little tweaks here and there. Now with this uniform, soldiers wear the boots, you have the pants. Soldiers must wear a sand or tan colored belt with the pants. You have the jacket. Underneath that jacket is a tan or sand colored undershirt. Then they have their patrol cap or PC. Now, there are also variations of this uniform that I won’t get too involved with, but basically, things like when it’s really hot outside, soldiers may be authorized to roll the sleeves up. And then when it’s cold out, then they might wear a Gortex jacket over top of their uniform. But now let’s get a little bit more detailed with the Army Combat uniform. In the center of the jacket is where the soldier would wear their rank. Above the right pocket of the soldier has their last name. Above the left pocket of the soldier has US Army. And above the US Army is where they would wear their badges if they have any. Things like airborne, air assault, all that stuff. Now, on the left sleeve, there’s a pocket that also has some velcro, and that is where their unit patch goes.

Speaker 1 (04:46)
That is the unit they are currently assigned to. On the right hand side is where you would have the American flag. A lot of people get confused and think the American flag is facing the wrong way, but it’s facing that particular way as if a soldier is moving forward and it’s blowing in the wind. So to always represent that you’re always moving forward. Now, some soldiers may have another patch below that flag and that is a combat patch. If that soldier had been deployed to a Combat Zone, then they would wear the patch of the unit that they were deployed with. For example, I deployed with two different units, the 30 ACR and the fourth ID. After my first deployment and I moved over to the fourth Infantry Division, I wore the fourth ID Patch as my unit patch, and I kept the 30 ACR patch for my Combat Patch since that was the first unit that I deployed with. Now, because I deployed with both units, the 30 ACR and the fourth ID, on that right sleeve, I could wear either the fourth ID patch or the 30 ACR patch. But I like to wear the one that I deployed with first.

Speaker 1 (05:37)
Now, on the soldier’s patrol cap or their PC, they would have the rank right in the center, and on the back, usually they have a name tape that has their last name on it. There is also a maternity version of this uniform for pregnant soldiers, but I won’t dive too specific into that. Now, let’s dive into the Army Service Uniform or the ASUs. This is the dress uniform that soldiers will wear during specific occasions. Now, the current Army Service Uniform is what used to be the dress blues for me back in the army because when I was in the army, we had the green uniform and then the blues were for very specific occasions. And then later, the army transitioned from those being dressed blues to be in the new army service uniforms. There is still a Class A version and a Class B version. I’ll talk a little bit about that here in a minute. The components of the ASU uniform, army service uniform, consists of dress shoes. They’re usually like these chlorofram is what they’re called. They’re always shiny and you really just have to wipe them down with a wet cloth or some Windex.

Speaker 1 (06:30)
With that, soldiers will wear these black dress socks. You then have the dress pants. For noncommissioned officers and officers, they have a gold stripe that goes down the pant leg. For lower enlisted, like specialists, privates, and all that stuff, they do not have that gold stripe. You then have the jacket. Underneath the jacket is a button up shirt with a tie. Then soldiers will wear the black beret typically with that uniform. There are some other variations of head gear, and I won’t dive too deep into that, but typically the head gear for the ASU uniform is going to be the black beret. Now, there are a lot of different components to that ASU jacket based on that soldier and the unit they’re with. Without getting too in depth with everything that goes on the uniform, we’re just going to talk about some of the more common and basic pieces that go on that jacket. There’s going to be things like on the right hand side of the uniform, you have a pin on badge that has the soldier’s last name. If they happen to have a badge on that right hand pocket below the name plate, that’s typically their unit patch for the unit they deployed with, like a combat patch.

Speaker 1 (07:26)
On the left hand side is where the soldiers wear their ribbons or medals and also their badges. For enlisted soldiers, they would wear their rank on the sleeve on both sides. For officers, they would wear their rank up on their shoulders. Next, you might see some stripes on the soldier’s sleeves down by their wrist, both on the left and right hand side. The stripes on the right hand side of the soldier’s sleeve represents time in combat. Each little stripe represents six months in a combat zone. On the left sleeve is the stripes that represent time in service for a soldier. And each stripe represents three years in the army. Now, that really describes the Class A variation of that uniform. There’s also a Class B version that has a short sleeve button up shirt and tie, no jacket, and then some other variations for formal events and airborne soldiers and a few other cases. Now, there are other types of uniforms that a soldier may wear based on their MLS. Things like they have food service uniforms for people that work inside the Chow hall and work with food. They have a specific hospital uniform for those individuals that work inside of a hospital.

Speaker 1 (08:22)
You also have crew chief uniforms for people who work with helicopters. Then you also have coveralls that a lot of soldiers are issued so that way they can wear those over the uniform in the motor pool when they’re crawling underneath trucks and working on vehicles. And there are other types of uniforms that a soldier may wear depending on their MLS or their job or what they are doing at that time. But the three main ones are those three that I first talked about, being the fitness uniform, the ACU uniform, and the ASU uniform, because basically all soldiers have those three uniforms, and then they may have something additional based on their MLS. There you go. That’s a little bit of a rundown on the uniforms in the United States Army. Down in the comments below, let me know which uniform you like the best. That even includes throwback uniforms. If there’s an older uniform that the army no longer wears that you like better than any of the current ones, then let me know in the comments down below. I am a fan of the pinks and greens. I’m for the army switching over to that because I think they look pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (09:15)
But I do also like the current ASUs with that dress blue style. So if you found this video helpful, make sure to hit that thumbs up button. If you want to check out some other videos from me, you can check out these two right over there. Also, if you’re not subscribed to the channel, you should go ahead and hit that subscribe button and check out all of my content. Binge watch it if you want, I don’t care. Thanks for watching. I’m Christopher chaos and I will see you next time. See you.

George N.
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